Key points

He says the aged-care system is unable to cope when people have serious problems.

Chief executive of Aged and Community Care Australia says the Government's 2012 funding promises only scrape the bottom of the barrel.

One woman said her grandmother, who survived Nazi concentration camps, believes her experiences in aged care are worse than her wartime ordeal.

The breadth of the claims has prompted aged care lawyer Rodney Lewis to call for an inquiry at the highest level.

"Many people are wondering what we have as an aged care system and whether it's suitable for members of their family, and also for themselves," Mr Lewis said.

"I think it's high time that we called for a royal commission to look into the whole aged care system.

"At the very least, if the political parties cannot agree to deliver a royal commission, whether starting before or after this forthcoming election, then at the very least we should have a parliamentary inquiry so that from the consumer point of view the residents' interests are the focus of that inquiry."

A leading advocate for those in nursing homes, Mr Lewis says the aged care industry in general is OK, but the system is unable to cope when people have serious problems.

"As with most industries, people are spat out the wrong end, and when you are, particularly when you have an individual complaint, one that's personal, one where you've suffered injury, some kind of trauma, emotional trauma, the system is utterly incapable of dealing with that and obtaining reasonable solutions.

"The Aged Care complaints system for example deals with systemic complaints, and the outcomes are often to put in trainers to improve the service, the delivery of care, that sort of thing.

"But that doesn't help the individual who's had an infection in their foot, or a bedsore, where they've really had injury and maybe weeks in hospital as a result."

Industry concedes problems, but Royal Commission unnecessary

Mr Lewis's call for a high-level inquiry has been rejected by a key industry leader.

The chief executive of Aged and Community Services Australia, John Kelly, who represents the non-profit sector, has told Lateline the problems do not warrant a royal commission.

"I'd rather have that funding added to what really is the important baseline to actually allow the staff who are very good staff and wish to get on with their jobs to get on and care for residents," Professor Kelly said.

However, he does not deny that the aged care sector has major problems, and says it is stricken by bureaucracy and underfunding.

"One of the problems is there is a tremendous amount of time being taken away from the care focus through paperwork and administrative burdens," he said.

"The other component is the chronic underfunding because of the demographic changes. If we actually have a look at that, there's over 1,000 Australians who turn 65 every week.

"There's over 250,000 Australians who are living with dementia and by 2020 that's going to increase by another 120,000, and on the Government's own figures we're going to need another 82,000 residential care beds by 2020.

"That's the equivalent of building two new 100-bed facilities every single week for the next seven years. This is chronic underfunding."

But Mr Lewis says the focus of a royal commission is needed to highlight the shortcomings he says are plaguing the industry.

"It's the way in which we bring out the problems in our community, just as we're doing with the children who've been sexually abused," he said.

"That is the way to highlight the problems, and we can't deal with problems if we don't know that they exist, or we're not aware of them.

There's stress in the system and it's caused through shortages of staff by the chronic underfunding of the funding formula for care.

Professor John Kelly

"And although there are many people, and many aged care organisations which are aware of them, we're not being heard, so this is clearly the way to focus attention on the problems and to get some action by the government of the day."

But Professor Kelly says the problems are already well known.

"The issue for me in terms of our member feedback is that there's stress in the system and it's caused through shortages of staff by the chronic underfunding of the funding formula for care," he said.

"I think it's time that particularly in an election year that baby boomers begin to have discussions with their mums and dads to ask them what sort of care they want and deserve and we need to be very clear and demand that from our politicians.

"It's about time that our older Australians are able to get the care that they deserve and they should be respected for that."

Professor Kelly says Government promises of extra money for the aged care industry announced in 2012 only scrape the bottom of the barrel.

He says it is spending only an extra $120 million a year over the next five years, at a time when the sector's base line funding needs to be recalibrated.